What could be nicer than a boat ride on your birthday? Last Sunday, on his 33rd birthday, Samuel Kenneth McDonough allegedly took the Victoria Clipper, a 132′ high speed passenger ferry, for a several hour joy-ride in Seattle’s Elliot Bay.  He apparently either climbed over or squeezed through an opening in a fence to reach the $8 million ferry. Once aboard, he found an operating manual and a set of keys and figured out how to start the engines, which apparently is not easy to do.  Reuters quotes Darrell Bryan, CEO of Clipper Navigation, the ferry’s owner, “He’s not stupid.  We had engineers who have had challenges with starting these engines.”  Fortunately, McDonoughdid not master the ferry’s steering, so he apparently drove the ferry in slow circles. At one point the ferry was perilously close to going aground on rocks near the Elliot Bay Marina and also nearly collided with a Washington State Ferries vessel, according to police reports..  The ferry is capable of a top speed of 30 knots and had enough fuel aboard to travel roughly 65 miles, so it is fortunate that McDonough didn’t get the steering figured out.  On Monday, a judge set McDonough’s bail at $200,000.

This is not McDonough’s first brush with the law.  In February of 2012, he was arrested for masturbating in front of two coffee stand barristas, which earned him a  felony conviction.  He had prior indecent exposure arrests dating from 2005, 2008 and 2012. He also has convictions for drug offenses and burglaries, as well a multiple citations for driving while intoxicated and/or without license. McDonough is supposed to be wearing a GPS anklet tracker at all times. He apparently was not wearing it on Sunday.   

When the SWAT team arrested him on Sunday and asked why he had taken the ferry, McDonough is reported to have replied that he “just wanted to go to West Seattle.”

Thanks to Phil Leon for contributing to the post.